


When All Other Lights Go Out

by talefeathers



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet, Gen, On The Barricade, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:33:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25289128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talefeathers/pseuds/talefeathers
Summary: At night on the barricade, Enjolras can't sleep, so he offers to take up Courfeyrac's watch.
Relationships: Courfeyrac & Enjolras (Les Misérables)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9
Collections: Les Misérables, Tumblr Drabbles





	When All Other Lights Go Out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fraternite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fraternite/gifts).



> Proving that wonders will indeed never cease, I found this little thing buried away deep in my Google Drive. I really like it, and I couldn't believe it when I couldn't find it posted anywhere, though it may be a relic from my old Tumblr blog.
> 
> Gifting this to Kat, because I think they'll really like it. <3

Soon after Combeferre had prevailed upon him to try to rest, it became clear to Enjolras that he wasn’t going to get any sleep that night.

He pulled himself up from where he had settled in one of the many shadows of the barricade. He wandered from person to person, marking faces alternately slack with sleep and tight with fear. He offered comfort where he could, though he could almost taste the futility of his words. It was a penance of sorts; he had led them to their deaths, and so he would suffer their trepidation. 

At last his eyes found Courfeyrac, perched near the top of their hastily built furniture fortress, his chin drooping slowly toward his chest. Somehow, it was this image more than any of the others that hit a chink in Enjolras’s armor. To see bright-eyed, energetic Courfeyrac so drained, so  _ dimmed— _ Enjolras made sure that the tears that had jumped to his eyes wouldn’t fall before scaling the barricade to sit with him.

“I’m alright, I’m alright!” Courfeyrac insisted, shaking himself at the sound of Enjolras’s approach.

“You should rest,” Enjolras murmured. “We’re going to need your strength tomorrow. Your spirit.”

Courfeyrac replied with a weary smile that tore at Enjolras’s heart.

“We’re going to need you, too,” he said. Enjolras shrugged, taking Courfeyrac’s musket from him.

“I can’t sleep, so I might as well keep watch. Better than having you nodding off on the job.”

Courfeyrac chuckled, then nodded his agreement.

“I suppose that’s fair.” Rather than get up and look for another spot to lie down, Courfeyrac surprised Enjolras by resting his head on his shoulder. Enjolras looped an arm around him so that he was holding a friend on one side and a gun on the other. Courfeyrac exhaled and let his eyes fall shut. “Thank you,” he breathed.

Tears sprang to Enjolras’s eyes again at this, but he waited until he could hear Courfeyrac’s measured breathing before letting them fall at last. He leaned his head against his friend’s, clenching sobs tightly in his throat to keep from waking him. 

Enjolras did believe that, even if this rebellion failed (and he no longer had hope that it wouldn’t), their stand today would contribute to a brighter tomorrow. Enjolras  _ had _ to believe that. But in that moment, it was difficult to imagine any light that was worth snuffing the one now sleeping at his side.


End file.
